I need to be honest:

9 weeks for a training camp is too long.

9 weeks of training your hardest in a combat sport where you can hurt yourself or your training partner is far too long.

Okay – that’s a half truth. It’s sort of too long.

It depends on how you do it.

It’s too long if you go as hard as you can every day. It’s too long if you don’t set side quests along the way. It’s too long if you don’t have any sort of balance off the mat.

This week, we’re talking about “the deload week,” the value of rest, and maybe, what this whole thing is really about.

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• ADCC Prep Week 3: The Mental Game of Grappling

Let’s dive in.

What is a deload week?

The first time I ever heard about the idea of “deloading” was in a powerlifting book, 5-3-1 by Jim Wendler.

I’m not really a big sports science guy besides casual reading, but this book has a lot of good insight and simple lifting tips. It’s really a no-nonsense way to build muscle.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:

“You want science and studies? F*ck you. I’ve got scars and blood and vomit.” – Jim Wendler, 5-3-1

A few chapters after this sentence, Jim starts talking about how deloads are essential for training progression and peaking.

Anyway, the point is that if a meathead book like this is talking about the benefits of deloading, maybe there’s some benefit to it for grapplers as well.

When Dima Murovanni came to B-Team and structured the camp, one of the first things that he told me was that he was a big believer in rest days and that after four weeks of hard training, there would be a deload week. An easy week for us to recover our bodies, rest up, and get ready for the final push toward ADCC.

I used the deload week to flee the Austin heat and visit my family in Chicago, where I taught four seminars, a handful of private lessons, and caught up with friends that I hadn’t seen since before the Trials.

It’s been a good time.

How rest fits into an ADCC training camp

Think of stress like a bucket.

When you train, some water gets put in the bucket. If the session is intense, you put a little bit more in. If you do some lifting or cardio or a second session later in the day, some more water goes in.

By the end of the day, you have a pretty full bucket. Things like financial stress, relationship stress, traffic stress, and all other stresses also find their way into your bucket.

When you do recovery stuff, a little water leaves the bucket. When you go to sleep at night, a lot of water leaves. You wake up with a nearly empty bucket.

However, it’s not totally empty, and if you never take a break, your bucket will overflow eventually – and not in a good way.

An overflowing bucket of stress can manifest either with an injury, a mental breakdown, or the main symptoms of overtraining, like insomnia (which makes it harder to recover), depression, or a ton of other issues. Acute symptoms of overtraining, like decreased performance, irritability, or intense fatigue are signs your bucket is starting to overflow.

So the value of a dedicated week of recovery is that you are able to get your body back to a baseline so that you can get back to training and improving without destroying your body.

In a sport full of people who always talk about how they work so hard and they’re so tough, dare to be someone who doesn’t overflow their bucket because you want to perform well when it counts.

Here’s the kicker.

I probably shouldn’t even say this, but I’m gonna say it anyway because it’s important that I’m honest with you all.

There are a lot of grapplers who do steroids to help with recovery and performance on the mat. There are also a lot of grapplers who do not. This is a real thing in our sport.

This article is not about steroids, my stance on it, or anything like that; it’s just important to remember that when you’re thinking about who you personally are comparing yourself too.

The point is that you need to take an honest assessment of yourself. Don’t compare your training output to someone who is using gear to recover. If you’re a hobbyist who trains for fun, don’t compare yourself to someone who is getting ready for ADCC.

Use realistic metrics to help yourself find a challenging but optimal training volume so that you can maximize progression, enjoyment, and health.

It may sound idealistic, but I think that we should be idealistic in theory and then adjust for reality.

Preparation for these tournaments is tough on the mind and body, and recovery is an essential part of the process.

I’m a big fan of recovery tools like:

• Hot tub
• Sauna (it’s actually not so bad when you’re not cutting weight)
• Ice bath
• Stretching/Light mobility
• Going for walks
• Eating (I love eating)
• Sleeping a lot (I try to sleep eight to nine hours a night during normal training weeks)

But at the end of the day, most recovery tools are just that – tools you can use to prolong your need for rest. Eventually, you just need to chill for a bit. Modify your training intensity.

I still trained a bit this week but I mostly did low heart rate rounds focused on skill building.

That’s what a deload week is for. The goal is to perform well at ADCC, not to have a great performance in the gym 2 Tuesdays before the big day.

Closing Thoughts

Going home for seminars this weekend was really fun.

(I believe) I’m one of only two grapplers ever to make it to ADCC from Chicagoland (the other being Jeff Curran), and it was sort of a homecoming trip of sorts. I got to train with my original coach Jeff Serafin at his new state of the art facility in Evanston, I did seminars at four gyms that are all upgrading or have upgraded to bigger and better locations since I was last there, and I even made time for a “Chicago ghosts and gangsters tour” with my mom and girlfriend.

It was a good time with good people, and really isn’t that what Jiu-Jitsu is supposed to be about? Having fun, working hard, and surround yourself with good people?

Anyway, maybe I’m romanticizing a bit. The point is I had a good time.

Tomorrow it’s back to work.

We’re just under four weeks until the biggest grappling tournament of my life thus far.

Read more from Chris at TheGrapplersDiary.Substack.com 

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